Tuesday, October 21, 2008

End of Event Report: From our Newsletter (10/20)

The 24-Hour Comics Day Challenge was going to start at 11:00 AM on Saturday, but due to a NJ Transit delay our two participant-artists started just before noon - no fear, the challenge was to create a 24-Page comic in 24-Hours so the clock started a bit late for them. Once settled in, Jesus Marquez (long-time friend of ours from the faith-based comic book Megazeen) and his friend Daniel Ramirez dug right in and began working. Taking a few small breaks throughout the day. The real challenge came in the early hours of the morning.

I can say for myself, when I was younger, staying awake all hours of the night was a cakewalk. However, at over 40 years now, my body and mind just can't do it without a fight. The paunchiness hit all three of us at about 4 AM, and the crashing an hour or so later. In an effort to stay awake, and after reading the 24-Hour Comics Day Blogs, I rushed to get our Blog up and running, since somewhere along the line I did not realize that we could post all on the official 24-Hour Comics Day Blog itself (with an invite), oh well, next year to be sure!

To give those of you not too into comics an idea of the magnitude of this events; a few years ago, New Moon Comics participated in the comic-challenge event "Comics Jam War" (you can see the CJW Photo Album here; and signed copies of the book are available in the store for a limited time!) which Jesus and the guys from Megazeen (Joe, Tom, and Keith) all took the bronze. That event called for an 8 page story to be completed in 12 hours, based off of a specific theme. At noon, we were given a picture of a guy in a comic shop with the caption "There's An Alien In The Comics Shop" - our guys had to develop an 8-Page story, and complete all art and lettering within 12 hours.

24-Hour Comics Day is a SOLO project. You can work with others, but it defeats the purpose of the endurance-based challenge. The story, art, and lettering must be completed with a 24 consecutive hour period. Although this seems easy, it is not. During the CJW, the guys finished the 8-Pages with few seconds to spare, and that was a whole team of creators!

I am proud of Jesus and Daniel! They fought hard to get their work done, and make it professional and worthwhile. In the end; sadly, Jesus was unable to complete the challenge of a full 24-Page story, but did make a creative ending to his work; and Daniel, although finished, felt his work could have been better (every artist feels their work could be better, for what it's worth). But, in the end, they fought through the fatigue, the late-night laughter over the poor dialog in the Star Wars prequels, and the need to scream to stay awake. And, they both dragged their tired selves' home determined to do better next year, learning from the experience they just endured.

For me, and for the store - it will be nice to have more creators in the store for next year. We, at one point had 7 creators scheduled, but due to work or other obligations, all but two had to withdraw. However, we expect them and many others next year!